King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us 

The Policy Institute at King’s College London works to solve society’s challenges with evidence and expertise. Part of the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, we combine the rigour of academia with the agility of a consultancy and the connectedness of a thinktank. 

This role sits within the Evidence Development and Incubation Team (EDIT) within the Policy Institute. EDIT works with organisations, including governments, charities and others to understand the impacts of their activities. This includes:

•       Developing and refining interventions

•       Developing logic models and theories of change

•       Designing and implementing process evaluations to understand how interventions work in practice and how they are experienced by participants

•       Designing and implementing impact evaluations to assess, experimentally or quasi-experimentally, the impact of an intervention on key outcomes

•       Working with organisations to develop their internal evaluation strategies and the capacities and processes that facilitate embedded evaluation.

We also advocate for evidence-based interventions, and work closely with members of the What Works Network to develop the evaluation ecosystem.

See more at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/about/edit

About the role

As an essential member of the Policy Institute, the Research Assistant will support the Evidence Development and Incubation Team (EDIT) in the scoping, delivery and research coordination of ongoing and new projects.

We have a lot of exciting projects at the moment which you will have the opportunity to get involved in. Current projects include: randomised controlled trials of initiatives in primary, secondary and further education; research on people’s experiences of receiving benefits; evaluations of interventions aimed at reducing homelessness; and research into public attitudes on mathematics.

Our ideal candidate will have formal training in qualitative methods, and experience in researching and evaluating effective practice in a range of areas, including but not limited to education, youth employment, and poverty and inequality.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract not exceeding 30th October 2025 when the grant ends.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: 

Essential criteria

1. Training/experience in qualitative research methods.
2. Training/experience in generating robust evaluation and research outputs.
3. Experience conducting data management and content analysis in NVivo.
4. Experience conducting literature reviews and/or rapid evidence reviews.
5. Experience working on research projects relating to vulnerable groups (e.g. people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, people with disabilities).
6. Exceptional written and oral communication skills.
7. High level of accuracy and attention to detail.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience conducting semi-structured interviews as part of an evaluation or research project. 
2. Experience working with people with experience of homelessness.
3. Experience working in a team to deliver an evaluation or research project.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. 

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

We are not able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK. 

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service.